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Thread: Fished Watauga Lake on Thursday

  1. #1
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    Default Fished Watauga Lake on Thursday


    We crappie fished on Watauga Lake Thursday (January 19th). Fished the upper end in Roan Creek and up in the Elk River areas. Water temp was around 46 degrees by 10 AM. The water color up in the Elk was stained due to the recent rains. Fished there for about 2 hours without a fish. We then moved to Roan Creek fishing the right hand side (as you come in from the main lake). We trolled small white twister style grubs in about 5 feet of water.
    We caught 9 nice crappie (white & 1 black nose) that were over 10".
    The trip was very SLOW! No one else we seen or spoke with was catching many either. If the weather stays warm for a few days crappie fishing will get MUCH better.

  2. #2
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    thanks for the watuga report i fish there for walleye been wanting to try for crappie i also troll most of the time .Do you do a lot of trolling for crappie on watuga what size head were you using i suspect 1/32 for the depth you were fishing. Any info appreciated about the lake would be appreciated.
    Speck

    Real men troll for crappie (Here Fishy Fishy !)

  3. #3
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    Speck.....Jig head size was 1/16 oz. I also troll this lake for walleyes but when the crappie fishing gets good on this lake it can be hard to beat it.
    The size crappie I catch are slightly smaller on average than those I catch on Cherokee or South Holston. This does not mean that I havn't caught some
    "paper mouth hogs" on this lake.
    My favorite areas of the lake for late winter/early spring crappie are the Elk River and Roan Creek. When the water warms to about 52 to 56 degrees (that area) you can catch all you want on small crankbaits trolled about 5 or 6 feet deep over a 8 to 10 feet bottom depth. You will rarely catch one that will not go the minimum 10" (most will be in the 12-15 inch class).
    Need any other information just let me know......

  4. #4
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    when does the water reach that tem late march early april mab be later since the lake is colder
    also lets talk walleye trolling i night fish for them in the spring i am wanting to troll for them also
    when is the best time to start and good location to start if you dont mind sharing a few tips
    Last edited by speck chaser; 01-25-2006 at 10:46 AM.
    Speck

    Real men troll for crappie (Here Fishy Fishy !)

  5. #5
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    Default Walleye Trolling

    Speck....we normally start trolling for walleyes about the end of January (long about now). The water temp on Watauga is about 46 degrees = or - a degree or 2. We will use a nightcrawler rig (night crawler spinner as some call it), I don't know if you are familiar with it but it is a simple in-line spinner with a cpl of beads and one or two hooks behind that. You "tip" it with a live night crawler or I like to use a Berkley Gulp worm. The Gulp will normally out fish the real crawler 3 to 1. It is rigged with about 1/8 to 1/4 oz of weight either inline or attached to a 3 way swivel with about a 2 foot dropper. I use a slightly lighter line for the weight so if it hangs and I loose the sinker I get back the spinner. I like the crawler rig because you can fish it as slow as you want trolled behind the boat. As the water warms I troll it faster or switch to a crank bait. About now we will troll on flats usally in the river channel of the Elk or Watuga rivers. The walleye will consentrate in these areas to make a spawning run in March. Where to fish: As a rule of thunb I look for the bait. I watch for large bait schools of alwives and shad in these areas. Where you find the bait, you will find the walleyes. I usally troll water depth from 8 to 25 feet. I set the drag on my reels very loose and hold at least one rod if possible while trolling. Sometime the bites are gentle tug (in which case I give the fish some line before setting the hook) other times they hit it like "TON OF BRICKS".
    Later in the spring I do something I call "EARLY TROLLING". On nights the walleyes push the bait to the banks (these are the nights that everyone goes out for the spoonbill bite and you can hear the walleyes "sucking down" the bait fish), the walleyes may not come into the banks until late at night or after midnight. We have figured out that the walleyes are feeding before they come into the banks. We start about 2 hours BEFORE sunset on Watauga & South Holston trolling deep diving crank baits along the same banks we catch them on when the bait moves up. We don't troll "profile baits" like the long bill Rebels....we troll shad and alwive imiations like the #9 Shad Rap or a Cordell walley diver or Rapala Tail Dancers. Color depends mostly on what you have confidence in. I like the colors purple, pink and blue after the sunsets. I like natural bait colors while there is some daylight.
    Trolling these lures parallel to the banks over a 15 to 25 feet bottom depth. Many nights we have our 5 fish limit and are loading our boat before the night fisherman even arrive. And I tell you.....WE CATCH SOME MONSTERS!!!
    In the summer we use "OPEN WATER TROLLING". This is my favorite way to catch late spring and summer walleyes in the daytime.!!!!! Warm water temps make walleyes suspend out in the middle of the lake in open water where alot of times there is no apparent structer for the walleyes to relate to. They just stack up in a cretain depth of water and "cruise around" looking for an easy meal. We troll Spoonbills, Count Down Rapala, Suspending jerk baits and even soft plastics like Sassy Shads. We put different lures on several rods, troll several different (you want your shallower baits farther out from the boat and your deeper lures close or behind the boat) depths until we find fish, then adjust the baits to that depth. We troll fast...up to 3 or 4 MPH.
    We / I also like trolling for BIG TROUT! on South Holston, Watauga & Ft Patrick Henry lakes.
    I live in Indian Springs (in Kingsport). Perhaps sometime we could hook up and go togather. Good Luck and Good Fishing!
    Any more questions......just let me know!

  6. #6
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    troller,thanks for the detailed walley info,I also live in kingsport
    I troll 90 percent of the time it is my favorite way to fish
    do you use a trolling motor or a kicker engine for trolling for walleye.
    where would be a good place to start fishing for walleye if i were to go saturday morning
    if you don't mind telling such as a point marker to reference to I also have a gps if you have a area marked
    if you ever need some one to go with you i would like to go along and learn
    how it is done by a experienced walley fisherman. thanks again
    also am going to try for thoes crappie
    Last edited by speck chaser; 01-26-2006 at 01:11 PM.
    Speck

    Real men troll for crappie (Here Fishy Fishy !)

  7. #7
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    Speck...If I were going on Saturday I would start in the upper end of the elk river with a spinner rig. (Putting in at Little Milligan). go up the Elk and fish the right hand side. There are some long flats on the Rt side just before you can see the highway. Water should be about 22 to 18 feet deep. Look for the bait (Last Thursday it was loaded in that area).
    If you don't do any good, go back down to Roan Creek and troll the Left hand side (going in from main lake) about 2/3 rds up toward the end.
    If you go let me know how you do..... I usally fish Monday-Thurday.
    Good Luck
    Oh yeah....I usally troll with a 24 Volt Minn Kota Auto Pilot. I sometimes use a kicker for open water trolling in warm weather.

  8. #8
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    I use a auto pilot also I don't how I got by all the years with out one
    what speed is good for the winter.I made some spinner rigs last night
    hope they work does any size blade or color work better on watauga than others.thanks again for your help
    Speck

    Real men troll for crappie (Here Fishy Fishy !)

  9. #9
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    With the spinner rig I use silver or gold in clear to lightly colored water. If the waters darker I go to orange or green sometimes charturse. According to the size & weight of your boat I start trolling on 3 or so then slow down slighting after my lines have tightened and the spinners are working good.
    As far as blade size goes i'm not sure, I get my rigs from a person who fishes the Great Lakes. I get 12 dozen for $26.00 (including shipping). He hand ties them himself with the very best of parts. He uses #4 black beak bait hooks and #12 line. The spinners are small, not sure of the size but we have used slightly larger blades and have done just as good. You may loose a cple but there not very expensive. You will also catch other species on these as the water warms in the next few weeks. BIG catfish absolultly love these spinnes. We also get a few smallmouth from time to time. Just remember to be versitile, try to hook your crawler as straight as possible (my problem I sometimes dont get them straight), and vary your trolling speed to what the walleyes want.
    If you catch a few catfish DON'T LEAVE THAT AREA. We have found that on Watauga expecially, the catfish and the larger walleyes will inhabit the same water depths and will feed on the same forage fish.
    Weather permitting we are planning on going on Monday or Tuesday.
    Good Luck.....let me know how it goes!

  10. #10
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    Default Some Cherokee talk

    Hey Troller, noticed you had a report or two on Cherokee a while back, I fish there regularly, for stripers from sept. till may then troll for crappie the summer months. Perhaps we could share some info., help us both out, maybe even make a trip together, learn a little from each other.
    Do you like to striper fish? Cherkee may well be the best striper lake in the country, no 40-50 pounders, but massive amounts of 12-20 lb fish.
    Possum1
    possum1
    Jack Mullins
    Psalms 46:1

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